Weekly food shop… AIBU or is it still costing more?

[Foodshopthoughts]

Can’t get it under £100 for two of us. We shop at one of the cheapest supermarkets. That does include every meal though, and all toiletries etc. I don’t eat meat and DH rarely. Family of 3 but baby won’t be adding to the cost us for a while due to breastfeeding. I thought prices were supposed to be coming down yet it seems to be going up and up?!

Are you buying in season and less 'exotic' options? Frozen or tinned fruit is cheaper. Bananas, apples, grapes are cheaper than strawberries or golden kiwis.

I’m afraid you ain’t seen nothing yet.

I know there's a COL crisis in the UK, but are supermarket food prices really affected? I am living abroad at the moment but return to the UK to visit. I was shocked by how cheap supermarkets were, having seen how much people on MN had been talking about how expensive it was. Horrified by the cost of everything else - restaurants, cafes, transport - and friends told me bills have all increased. But supermarket food seemed incredibly cheap - far cheaper than I'd expected!

We do nearly the same shop at Tesco online every week. Compared to 3 years ago, our weekly bill is at least £30-35 more, and we barely buy booze any more! Compared to last year, it's approx £20 a week more. I feel it's also gone up quite considerably in the last 6 months. We don't buy anything fancy or expensive meat etc either

Yes they are. It may still be cheap compared to where you live, but costs have risen considerably in the supermarkets here. So although ‘incredibly cheap’ to you, alongside the rises in fuel bills and everything else, it’s still a strain on people’s budgets.

I spend about £50 a week for me, DH and 3 lads (15, 20, 25) This is for breakfast, evening meals and snacks - although the older 2 generally buy their snacks and eat fast food on weekends.

Older 2 buy their own bait for lunch and the younger has school meals

Also UK wages are a long way behind most comparable economies.

Two adults and a spoilt cat - easy £150 a week. Main weekly food shop plus top-ups.

I eat meat but it's not that expensive if you buy cheap cuts. I buy a posh chicken, 2kg, £16, but that lasts for three meals for two adults and 4 year old so not too bad per meal. We have haggis which is a bargain - £3 and lasts two meals. Pork tenderloin. Even the 98% sausages are £6 for two packs so not bad.

We spend £15 on veg box, about £20/week on meat, and £60 on other shopping. I do make most stuff from scratch but could cut down if necessary by buying lower quality stuff.

Still much more expensive than it used to be though. Some individual items do come down in price though - my yoghurt has.

When I was on mat leave/part time with very low wages I used to be able to to a decentish lidl shop that would feed us all for about £30.00 a week- it was very basic but healthy food- I even managed to feed us for a full week once in asda on £20.00, again total basic and that was less healthy but money was very tight.

Now I couldn't even do that for £60.00 in lidl and we're talking less than 6 years ago I'd say- it's crazy how much things have gone up. I couldn't afford to take mat leave now if I was having any more kids.

Internet order was £130 yesterday, can be £150, plus we do Costco shop every other month. Three adults in house.

I’m in Ireland where things are probably a bit more expensive so I can’t understand why people in the UK are spending the equivalent to what I would spend.

I just went online to one of the most expensive places to buy food here, which is Supervalu
And I’m not gonna make the list, but I planned the week of meals and bought everything except spices which I assume people would have at home if they make curries regularly.
The meal plan is
Spaghetti Bolognese with garlic bread
Seafood pie with green beans and broccoli
Chicken curry with poppadoms pork chops with potatoes and vegetables
Pizzas with salad and potato wedges
Burritos with guacamole, cheese and rice
Roast chicken dinner with veg and gravy

My list included everything for those dinners and also included items for school lunches
Part baked rolls
Apples
Bananas
plums
Yoghurts
Plums
Popcorn
Chicken slices

I also added in for a good measure milk, flour, toilet roll, teabags, potato waffles, eggs, oats, honey, tuna, sweetcorn.

I tend to make flapjacks for my children for their lunchboxes

From my lunch, I tend to have some leftovers or some salad.

With the offers that they give for shopping with them and three-year-old delivery fee it came to €96.

I could get all that a lot cheaper in Lidl, which is what I usually do. I do use Supervalu for a delivery shop when I need it as Lidl don’t deliver.

I spend about 180-200/month on groceries (under which I count everything from supermarkets and specialty style shops, I'm not dividing my receipts according to item) for one person. 190 in this September just gone.

I eat meat/fish/seafood every day.

I don't find that's it's going up so much at present. The one thing I noticed recently was that turkey steaks in Sainsburys (400g) are up by almost a pound since spring. Other things I haven't noticed much change in - salmon increased a lot over the past year, but is where it's been for a while.

Some things had minor decreases (a few pennies) compared to about a year ago (rapeseed oil, UHT milk) (but then the price of UHT milk tripled since about 2021).

I was very pleasantly surprised recently at the fishmongers to get much cheaper price for the lemon sole I buy there about every 6 weeks (the fishmonger said they got a good deal on them as they were small in size).

That's quite normal, has been so for a long time. i shop around different supermarkets (get everything online, delivered, as hate shopping), some things are on offer and are bargains.

There are certainly ways of eating very cheaply. If I were to subsist on rice, pasta, lentils and kidney beans it would save a few pounds but it's easy to get tired of that sort of menu. I'm lucky in that I'm one of those people who can have the same thing day after day and not get bored with it. In a previous life I may have been a cat or possibly an engineer. But once you've got other people in the household who demand a bit of variety it is hard to get the weekly cost below three figures these days.

Was only thinking this yesterday when I did my online order. Our regular shop used to be around £100, it's now £160.

Wow, I'm assuming you're a good cook

Family of 7 plus 2 cats - that includes 5 teenage girls so I'm regularly in Savers for hair/face products! We spend anything between £400 to £560 a month, I try and stick to £100 a week for all of us. Bulk buy, kids have packed lunches at school and I do love a yellow sticker as I hate waste.

Two of us are vegetarian so we tend to cook veggie stew and chilli which are really cheap and left overs do for the next day as well along with lots of rice and pasta dishes. The kids are not big meat eaters and go for chicken so we don't get steaks etc.

We spend roughly 400 a week for family of 5 which needs to come down really.
It includes everything tho

Would love to see your meal plan!

During covid, I was able to do 2 adults and a one year old for 8-10 days for £60ish, allowing for one top up of milk/bread/fruit and one takeout.

Now, I still shop every 2 ish weeks, but it's £120 ish (2 adults, 2 5 and under), plus top ups, a takeout and a few lunches for dh. So yeah, it's doubled.

😮😮😮😮😮

I would love to see an itemised receipt for this! What do you buy?!

I've noticed the same. I have to buy 'free form' items and can't do a full shop in Aldi/Lidl (plus I think there fresh produce isn't all that) so use the main supermarkets. I have really noticed an increase recently in my weekly shop costs. I remember when I could get two big bags of stuff for around £50/£60 but now it's more like one bag. Obviously there'll be stacks of people on here that are still able to feed their family of 6 on £20 a week on a diet of MN chicken, big salads and lentils but OP I agree - when will it end???

I get cereal for breakfasts, or its pancakes or toast.

Me and partner make sandwiches for lunch

Evening meals is generally something like,

toad in the hole, can be made with 2 packs of pork sausages from lidl (£1.49 each i think - 8 sausages in a pack and bag of potato's & frozen veg),

Burgers and fries (pack of 6 burgers from Lidl or Aldi about £3 and a bag of fries - 99p),

family sized lasagne from Aldi (about £4 served with jacket potato)

Pasta bake - I just make it with a bag of basic pasta, 2 jars sauce and add in whatever veg is in the fridge or freezer - or make it with mushrooms chicken and chorizo, makes a lot and a lot of leftovers

Chicken steaks - 4 for £2.99 in lidl, buns and cheese slices and again a bag of fries

I have yogurts and fruit in the fridge